New evidence released Friday by House Democrats shows Derek Harvey, a former White House official and top aide to GOP Rep. Devin Nunes, communicated extensively with Lev Parnas about both Ukraine aid and setting up Skype interviews with former Ukrainian prosecutors, NBC News reports.
The messages show that Harvey was far more involved than previously known in what appears to be a robust effort by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee to investigate Ukraine-related matters.
The text messages between Harvey and Parnas — who is the indicted associate of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and who has claimed that Trump and other administration officials were aware of an alleged plan to get Ukraine to announce investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son — start in February 2019 and continue into May.
An alleged effort by Trump to seek the Ukrainian announcement of investigations is central to articles of impeachment filed against Trump, which allege the president abused the power of his office for personal political gain in the 2020 election.
